An apparatus for cutting food products of the type comprising an impeller rotating inside a cutting head is known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 6,968,765. The cutting head is a stationary drum which is fitted with multiple cutting stations. Products cut with this technology include potato chips, cheese shreds, vegetable slicing, nut slicing and countless others. Centrifugal force is required to apply pressure to the product for stability when it passes the blades in the cutting stations. The centrifugal force is specific to the product, but it is known that too high centrifugal force can produce excess friction and compression on the product and that too low centrifugal force can cause poor knife engagement resulting in damage of the product. The desired cutting velocity is also specific for a given product.
In this type of apparatus, the cutting velocity is directly related to centrifugal force as both depend directly on the rotational speed of the impeller. However, the optimal impeller rotational speed from a viewpoint of centrifugal force is often different from the optimal impeller rotational speed from a viewpoint of cutting velocity. In those cases, upon selecting the impeller rotational speed a trade-off has to be made between more optimal centrifugal force and more optimal cutting velocity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,925 discloses an apparatus of this type in which the cutting head is cutting head is not stationary as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,968,765 but can be rotated in the same direction as the impeller at a slower speed.